Rob Brezsny’s Astrology Dec 21—27

-

December 21, 2016

ARIES (March 21-April 19): NPR’s Scott Simon interviewed jazz pianist and songwriter Robert Glasper, who has created nine albums, won a Grammy, and collaborated with a range of great musicians. Simon asked him if he had any frustrations—“grand ambitions” that people discouraged him from pursuing. Glasper said yes. He’d really like to compose and sing hip-hop rhymes. But his bandmates just won’t go along with him when he tries that stuff. I hope that Glasper, who’s an Aries, will read this horoscope and take heart from what I’m about to predict: In 2017, you may finally get a “Yes!” from people who have previously said “No!” to your grand ambitions.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): Humans have drunk hot tea for more than two millennia. Chinese emperors were enjoying it as far back as the second century B.C. And yet it wasn’t until the 20th century that anyone dreamed up the idea of enclosing tea leaves in convenient one-serving bags to be efficiently brewed. I foresee you either generating or stumbling upon comparable breakthroughs in 2017, Taurus. Long-running traditions or customs will undergo simple but dramatic transformations that streamline your life.

GEMINI (May 21-June 20): “What you do is what counts and not what you had the intention of doing,” said Pablo Picasso. If I had to choose a single piece of advice to serve as your steady flame in 2017, it might be that quote. If you agree, I invite you to conduct this experiment: On the first day of each month, take a piece of paper and write down three key promises you’re making to yourself. Add a brief analysis of how well you have lived up to those promises in the previous four weeks. Then describe in strong language how you plan to better fulfill those promises in the coming four weeks.

CANCER (June 21-July 22): During the campaign for U.S. President in 1896, Democratic candidate William Jennings Bryan traveled 18,000 miles as he made speeches all over the country. But the Republican candidate, William McKinley, never left his hometown of Canton, Ohio. He urged people to visit him if they wanted to hear what he had to say. The strategy worked. The speeches he delivered from the front porch of his house drew 750,000 attendees and played an important role in his election. I recommend a comparable approach for you in the coming months, Cancerian. Invoke all your attractive power as you invite interested parties to come see you and deal with you on your home turf.

LEO (July 23-Aug. 22): “Poetry is a way of knowledge, but most poetry tells us what we already know,” writes poet Charles Simic. I would say the same thing about a lot of art, theater, film, music, and fiction: Too often it presents well-crafted repetitions of ideas we have heard before. In my astrological opinion, Leo, 2017 will be a time when you’ll need to rebel against that limitation. You will thrive by searching for sources that provide you with novel information and unique understandings. Simic says: “The poem I want to write is impossible: a stone that floats.” I say: Be on the lookout for stones that float.

VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22): The Economist magazine reports that if someone wanted to transport $10 million in bills, he or she would have to use eight briefcases. Sadly, after evaluating your astrological omens for 2017, I’ve determined that you won’t ever have a need for that many. If you find yourself in a situation where you must carry bundles of money from one place to another, one suitcase will always be sufficient. But I also want to note that a sizable stash of cash can fit into a single suitcase. And it’s not out of the question that such a scenario could transpire for you in the coming months. In fact, I foresee a better chance for you to get richer quicker than I’ve seen in years.

LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22): For a bald eagle in flight, feathers are crucial in maintaining balance. If it inadvertently loses a feather on one wing, it will purposely shed a comparable feather on the other wing. According to my analysis of the astrological omens, this strategy has metaphorical meaning for your life in 2017. Do you want to soar with maximum grace and power? Would you like to ascend and dive, explore and scout, with ease and exuberance? Learn from the eagle’s instinctual wisdom.

SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21): In August 2012, a group of tourists visited the Eldgja volcanic region in Iceland. After a while, they noticed that a fellow traveler was missing. Guides organized a search party, which worked well into the night trying to track down the lost woman. At 3 a.m., one of the searchers suddenly realized that she herself was the missing person everyone was looking for. The misunderstanding had occurred many hours earlier because she had slipped away to change her clothes, and no one recognized her in her new garb. This is a good teaching story for you to meditate on in 2017, Scorpio. I’d love to see you change so much that you’re almost unrecognizable. And I’d love to see you help people go searching for the new you.

SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21): In 2017, you will be at the peak of your ability to forge new alliances and deepen existing alliances. You’ll have a sixth sense for cultivating professional connections that can serve your noble ambitions for years to come. I encourage you to be alert for new possibilities that might be both useful for your career and invigorating for your social life. The words “work” and “fun” will belong together! To achieve the best results, formulate a clear vision of the community and support system you want.

CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19): Capricorn writer Edgar Allan Poe has been an important cultural influence. His work appears on many “must-read” lists of 19th-century American literature. But during the time he was alive, his best-selling book was not his famous poem “The Raven,” nor his short story “The Gold-Bug,” nor his novel The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket. Rather, it was The Conchologist’s First Book, a textbook about mollusk shells, which he didn’t actually write, but merely translated and edited. If I’m reading the astrological omens correctly, 2017 will bring events to help ensure that your fate is different from Poe’s. I see the coming months as a time when your best talents will be seen and appreciated better than ever before.

AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18): “My goal is to create a life that I don’t need a vacation from,” says motivational author Rob Hill Sr. That’s an implausible dream for most people. But in 2017, it will be less implausible than it has ever been for you Aquarians. I don’t guarantee that it will happen. But there is a decent chance you’ll build a robust foundation for it, and thereby give yourself a head start that enables you to accomplish it by 2019. Here’s a tip on how to arouse and cultivate your motivation: Set an intention to drum up and seek out benevolent “shocks” that expand your concepts of who you are and what your life is about.

PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20): The birds known as winter wrens live in the Puget Sound area of Washington. They weigh barely half an ounce, and their plain brown coloring makes their appearance unremarkable. Yet they are the avian equivalents of the opera star Pavarotti. If they weighed as much as roosters, their call would be 10 times as strong as the rooster’s cock-a-doodle-doo. Their melodies are rich and complex; one song may have more than 300 notes. When in peak form, the birds can unleash cascades at the rate of 36 notes per second. I propose that we make the winter wren your spirit animal in 2017, Pisces. To a casual observer, you may not look like you can generate so much virtuosity and lyrical power. But according to my analysis, you can.

Homework: Send me predictions for your life in 2017. Where are you headed? Go to RealAstrology.com; click on “Email Rob.”

Judge Finds Conflict in San Lorenzo Valley Water Scandal

Local News

Kara Guzman

-

December 21, 2016

0

Judge Finds Conflict in San Lorenzo Valley Water Scandal

A California superior court judge has fined former San Lorenzo Valley Water District board member Terry Vierra $9,300, the amount that he and his wife profited from a district board decision which Vierra influenced.

Vierra and his wife, Molly Bischoff, are partners in a Boulder Creek real estate business. In 2010, Bischoff was the listing agent for a house that the district bought.

The problem was that while a district board member, Vierra influenced the board’s decision to buy the property, a decision in which Vierra had a financial interest, and profited from.

The judge chose not to order the maximum penalty, which would have been three times the amount. The prosecutor, in a Dec. 13 statement, wrote: “The court does not believe that the defendant had evil intent in violating 91005 [the law] and finds that it is not necessary to set the maximum fine. Still, the legislature has set strict guidelines to prevent conflicts of interest with public officials and the court cannot ignore the law.”

Vierra declined to comment, since the case is ongoing. Sometime in late 2017, the second part of the lawsuit against Vierra will be heard, on the district’s alleged violation of government code Section 1090, which the League of California Cities calls the “When in Doubt, Sit it Out” code.

The court initially found that the Section 1090 charges against Vierra and the district were wrongfully issued, but it’s on appeal.

If the court finds that the district entered into a contract in which Vierra had a financial interest, more penalties could be issued. One possibility is the 2010 home sale could be voided, and the sellers, or more likely Vierra, could be ordered to return $522,000 to the district. The district also could be liable for the prosecutor’s legal fees.

NOT ON MY WATCH

The lawsuit was filed two years ago by Boulder Creek resident Bruce Holloway, a retired Silicon Valley computer engineer who heard about the house sale after he began attending water district meetings in 2011.

“I thought, ‘That’s really strange. Why would the water district buy a house?’” says Holloway.

He heard the reasons: The district was replacing nearby water tanks and wanted a staging area for construction and an extension of the property line, since the new tanks would need more space. But Holloway thought it didn’t make sense. Why couldn’t the district get an easement, like other utility companies do to install public equipment, or rent a dumpster and put it on the road for construction debris?

Holloway began digging through old meeting notes and asking board members in public sessions. Eventually, months later, a group with access to the real estate records tipped him off about Bischoff’s involvement as an agent.

That’s when Holloway made a records request for the house sale contracts and got proof of Vierra’s profit from the sale. Holloway studied the law, and zeroed in on what was illegal about Vierra’s actions.

Meanwhile, the district was embroiled in another controversy: in 2014, it fired its district manager, two days after a civil grand jury report was released, blasting the district for its lack of financial and operational oversight.

Holloway knew the district board was going to choose the next manager, and he didn’t think Vierra had a right to take part in that important decision. Holloway approached Vierra at his office, a month before Vierra’s term ended.

“I told him he should pay the money back and resign,” says Holloway, which Vierra didn’t do.

Holloway filed the lawsuit against Vierra. And to Holloway’s dismay, Vierra took part in the decision to appoint Brian Lee, the district’s current manager.

DEFENDING VIERRA

One of Lee’s first actions as manager, in 2015, was to pay $13,000 for Vierra’s legal defense.

“Terry was acting as a director of the district at the time of the claim, so we would be hard-pressed not to defend him,” Lee says.“And at this point in time, the district still feels that the judge misunderstood the law. And we think that it’s the right thing to do. We think that Terry—and even the judge said—Terry did not intend to do anything wrong. Terry tried very hard to do it right. So you know it seems kind of obvious that we would pay for his legal defense.”

Lee says the lawsuit has cost the district $59,000 in legal fees.

Several former board members testified on Vierra’s behalf. Margaret Bruce, the newly elected board president, also testified, but was unwilling to comment for this article, since the lawsuit is ongoing.

Former board member Randall Brown wasn’t on the board in 2010 when the sale happened, but read about it and discussed it in the closed session meetings from 2012 to 2016.

Brown says Vierra excused himself a few times from decisions because he was aware of a possible conflict of interest, but mistakenly approved a group of payments that included the house sale.

Brown says the board wanted to pay Vierra’s legal fees because otherwise people may be discouraged to run for office.

“There was consensus on the board that this was one of our own and we had to own it,” Brown says.

Brown says it seemed that the judge was “practically almost embarrassed” to pass his ruling against Vierra, due to “a technicality.”

“The appeal is still pending, and that’s really the joker, is if [Holloway] wins, then that could set a lot of precedence,” Brown says. “I think Terry tried his best not to be in the middle of that. I think he knew he would have been wrong if he was involved more than he was.”

BAD ADVICE

Mark Hynes, the district’s counsel, was present in the closed session meeting in 2010 in which the board decided to buy the house. Interestingly, Hynes is also Vierra’s lawyer, paid by the district to defend Vierra’s actions, which might have been avoided if Hynes had properly counseled the district back in 2010.

“Really, my target is the district counsel [Hynes],” says Holloway. “It’s because he’s giving the board really bad advice. And I need to demonstrate that you’re listening to the wrong kind of advice, and I don’t think that’s gotten through to them. I don’t think they’ve gotten it at all.”

Hynes was reached for comment, but did not reply before this article went to print.

According to law, as a plaintiff, Holloway received $4,600 of the $9,300 that Vierra was ordered to pay. The state’s general fund received the other roughly $4,600. Vierra also may be asked to pay for Holloway’s legal fees accrued thus far.

If Holloway wins his appeal, and the court orders the home sale void, the $522,000 would be returned entirely to the water district. Holloway says he really doesn’t understand why the district is defending Vierra’s actions.

“I feel like I’ve got the pieces to a puzzle, and I think it might be worth half a million dollars to the public, and I need to illustrate to this agency that they’re really going in the wrong direction. They’re really taking the wrong advice and they’re spending money for the wrong purpose.”

Film Review: ‘La La Land’

A&E
Film

Lisa Jensen

-

December 21, 2016

0

It takes a lot of audacity to mount an old-fashioned Hollywood musical in these cynical times. Once a genre unto itself, usually a romantic story expressed in song and dance numbers (“All singing! All dancing!” the ads screamed), the movie musical has been devalued in the age of irony. Audiences who buy into zombies and skyscraper-sized aliens are unable to suspend their disbelief for people breaking out into song in the middle of their daily lives.

Only in Disney princess cartoons do characters sing their hearts out onscreen (which is OK, because they’re not, you know, real), or in a film set in a musical milieu, like Once, where the characters bond through performing together.

But Damien Chazelle’s masterful La La Land makes the movie musical sing again. And dance. And how! As dubious as you might find the idea of a modern musical starring actors—Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone—not previously known for their singing or dancing, this is one glorious joyride from start to finish. The stars are capable and appealing, the locations around greater Los Angeles County (including my hometown of Hermosa Beach) look as magical as any film set, and Chazelle finds exciting new ways to reinvent the genre at every turn.

The original musical score from composer Justin Hurwitz and lyricists Benj Pasek and Justin Paul gives the movie its own upbeat, modern identity. Set in L.A., the story begins on a freeway during a traffic jam. As traffic slows to a halt, the overhead camera zeroes in on a woman driver who starts singing. She emerges from her car and starts dancing, with other motorists of all shapes, and colors (just like the population of L.A.) climbing out of their cars to join in. It’s a massive production number (“Another Day of Sun”) that makes brilliant use of the freeway structure and immobilized cars as dancing props.

When traffic starts up again, driver Mia (Stone) has a rude encounter with Sebastian (Gosling). She’s an aspiring actress going to work at a coffeeshop on a movie studio backlot, where she can be close to the auditions she’s always running off to. She shares a flat with three other hopeful actresses; after they drag her off to a party, she’s on her way home when she wanders into a piano bar where Seb is playing.

Now the movie switches to Seb’s story. He’s a jazz musician reduced to playing Christmas carols in the bar to fund his dream of opening his own jazz club one day. (J. K. Simmons—co-star of Chazelle’s last film, Whiplash—cameos as Seb’s deadpan boss.) Mia is drawn to a particularly hypnotic refrain Seb is playing, one that echoes throughout the story. Their next encounter also fizzles, but they begin circling into each other’s orbits as romance blossoms.

The rest is best left to the viewer to experience. The themes are universal—pursuing one’s dreams, staying true to oneself—but the storytelling is fresh. Mandy Moore’s choreography is outstanding, from that huge freeway number to Mia and Seb’s lovely tap duet as they start to fall in love. In a fabulous fantasy duet, they rise up into the starmap of the interior dome of Griffith Park Observatory, literally dancing with the stars.

Stone and Gosling have musical experience—she starred in a Cabaret revival on Broadway, he played multiple instruments (including piano) in an indie rock band. Chazelle chose to shoot their duets the old-fashioned way—in Cinemascope, in one take—and both performers are up to the challenge; their dancing is fluid and relaxed.

Using iconic L.A. landmarks and neighborhoods, like the venerable Lighthouse jazz club in Hermosa (and the beachfront and pier), Watts Towers, the Grand Central Market and the Angel’s Flight cable car, Chazelle creates a visual reverie on the City of Dreams, an L.A. that may only exist in the imagination. And while he stays true in spirit to classic musicals, Chazelle’s wistful, and poignant finale gives the movie an unexpected edge. La La Land is a virtuoso production that gives us all something to sing (and dance) about.

LA LA LAND

**** (out of four)

With Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, and John Legend. Written and directed by Damien Chazelle. A Lionsgate release. Rated PG-13. 126 minutes.

2016: The Year in Review

Cover Stories

GT Staff

-

December 21, 2016

0

January

GODZILLA INVADES SANTA CRUZ, THOUSANDS FLEE IN MILD ANNOYANCE TO CHANGE OUT OF WET SOCKS

A Sunday morning storm drenched the coast with rain on Jan. 24, creating waves close to 15 feet high at the Santa Cruz Municipal Wharf, which busted a water main along the pier. Officials from the city’s Department of Irony soon repaired the pipe, as locals splashed around trying to remember what this wet liquid suddenly coming from every direction was called. Alas, despite a couple of impressive storms, the much-hyped “Godzilla El Niño” couldn’t end four years of drought, and the year’s rainfall total ended up pretty average.

SECURITY GUARD FAILS TO ACHIEVE STATE OF ACTUAL COPNESS

On Jan. 26, an off-duty security guard became incensed when the driver in front of him did not pull into traffic quickly enough in the middle of rush hour. During a confrontation at a stop sign, he took out his handcuffs, threatening to arrest the other driver. “Oh, hell no,” said the real police, who showed up to arrest the guard instead.

February

WEIRD WESTSIDE HOME SOLD TO ALARMINGLY NORMAL COUPLE

A quirky, historic Westside property, locally referred to as the Court of Mysteries, the Yogi Castle, and the House That Was For Sure Built By Aliens, was purchased by an innocuous human-looking “couple” from “San Francisco.” The totally normal non-aliens plan on remodeling the iconic temple-like structure while honoring the original architecture, in accordance with the prophecy in preparation for the Second Coming of Zorp.

BUT IT HAD WALLS AND A ROOF, RIGHT? IS IT STILL AVAILABLE?

Santa Cruz City Councilman Micah Posner was revealed to have been renting out an illegal accessory dwelling unit in his backyard without city approval or permits for seven years, including four while serving as an elected official. The “backyard bedroom,” which Posner rented to a friend for $700 a month, had no bathroom, kitchen, foundation or heating. Posner did not run for re-election, presumably freeing up time to sit in the corner and think about what he did.

March

GIVE US ALL YOUR CASH MONEYS AND ALSO THE LUNCH SPECIAL

Two men with sawed-off shotguns—and apparently some hefty appetites—stormed the back of a food truck on Freedom Boulevard. They demanded money and fled in a getaway red hatchback down Crestview Drive. As heists go, it was obviously pretty silly. Everyone knows the real money was in the banana stand.

AIN’T NO PARTY LIKE A BANANA SLUG PARTY

DEA and Homeland Security investigators busted a UCSC ecstasy ring involving six sorority and frat students, seizing an overseas shipment of more than $100,000 worth of MDMA. What do you think of that, 4,000 East Coast students who accidentally received acceptance letters to UCSC even though you never actually applied? Oh yeah, you wish you were going here now! We ship internationally, bitches! Don’t you know we’re loco?

April

THE BURRITO-SIZED HOLE IN OUR HEARTS

How does a Taqueria Vallarta even close down in this town? There are like 25 of them, and they always seem busy. Anyway, one did, and it just happened to be the one right below GT’s downtown office, proving that no story within a 500-foot radius escapes our nose for news. Speaking of noses, we now get the scent of Five Guys peanut oil wafting up into our ventilation system. Thanks for nothing, George Washington Carver.

‘I THOUGHT I DREAMT THAT’ EXCUSE PROBABLY SEEMED LIKE IT MIGHT WORK

After a 20-year-old man was caught on video climbing out of the broken window of a downtown shop, police caught up to him in the wee hours of the morning, sleeping just a few blocks from the scene. “He claimed that he had dreamed about being locked in a store and having to break glass to get out,” SCPD spokeswoman Joyce Blaschke wrote on the Santa Cruz police blog. “The officer advised him it was not a dream.”

May

EVERY PUN WE COULD MAKE ABOUT HOW GROSS COWELL BEACH IS

Nothing but crappy news for Cowell Beach, which still stinks, at least compared to every other beach in California. The water quality by the Santa Cruz Wharf has been pissing off locals for the better part of a decade, ever since test results took a dump in 2009. And nervous city staffers are pooped out after years of trying to answer questions about why e. coli levels are so high and whether or not a sewage pipe was taking a giant leak into the surf. Well, it hit the fan again this year when the results were in the can from the Heal the Bay’s annual list, which Cowell’s topped again. But failure, this time, isn’t a dung deal. Some whiz kids at Stanford studied the issue, and experts have identified the main culprit—poop from pigeons and other animals. Let’s work on that, so that the whole beach doesn’t go to waste.

BECAUSE, LIKE THE PRESIDENT-ELECT SAID, ‘70 PERCENT OF REGULATIONS CAN GO’

Dallas-based Santa Cruz Biotechnology, which employs 150 at its Delaware Avenue research lab, was ordered to cease all operations as of Dec. 31, and pay a fine of $3.5 million—the largest fine ever brought under the U.S. Animal Welfare Act—for maltreatment of goats and rabbits. According to a 2012 study, more than half of the world’s biomedical research labs working with antibodies were acquiring blood and serum from the company. The settlement followed multiple abuse allegations by the U.S. Department of Agriculture dating back to 2005; inspectors found thousands of animals missing from a California facility in February, and photographed goats with massive tumors and untreated open wounds. But while owners John and Brenda Stephenson may have lost their holdings in the billion-dollar antibody industry, they are no doubt exactly the right people for their latest venture, called … Santa Cruz Animal Health.

June

POSSIBLY THE NEXT CLOVERFIELD SEQUEL

Summer began with a bang when several blasts shook Bonny Doon residents between 1 and 3 p.m. on June 28. The explosions at Lockheed Martin’s Empire Grade facility were “planned,” officials told the Santa Cruz Sentinel, and while there was smoke, there was no fire—just some aliens warring with an aerospace and defense company to distract us while the Illuminati spray chemtrails and try to fluoridate our water.

PAST ITS PRIME

After years of flirting with a Santa Cruz expansion, Amazon went on a hiring spree, searching high and low for talented local brainiacs with low enough self esteem that they’d want to work in the company’s notoriously soul-sucking corporate environment. Don’t worry, though, about techies changing the laid-back Santa Cruz vibe and jacking up rent prices—these jobs will probably get replaced by machines in six months, anyway.

July

YOU CAN FIND ME IN DA CLUB, BOTTLE FULL OF PERMIT VIOLATIONS

A DJ, some live bands, colored lights, sofas, tables, an upstairs balcony and a giant banner on the wall that says “End Prohibition.” What else does a nightclub need? Well, a business license, for one, and—since prohibition did actually end—an alcohol license, too. But those were about the only two things police didn’t find when they raided a 4,800-square-foot warehouse-turned-underground-nightclub in the Harvey West area on July 9. Five were arrested and officers seized gallons of alcohol, as well as methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine and a stolen .38-caliber revolver. As many as 200 people are reported to have visited the nightclub on a single night, and among those who paid the cover charge to get in were undercover police officers.

BOAT MADE MY LUNCH

Monterey Bay is part of the “red triangle,” and we figured that couldn’t be good even before we knew it was about sharks. But about sharks it is (er, sharks it is about?), and one boater a mile off the Capitola Wharf now understands why, after a 15-foot great white lifted his small skiff several feet in the air and left a piece of razor-sharp tooth embedded in its hull. Luckily, he was unhurt. The shark, meanwhile, has 299 other teeth, and should be fine, assuming it signed up for dental this year.

August

WHEN UNLIKELY ANIMAL FRIENDS ATTACK

So, there was this Clydesdale horse, right? And apparently he wasn’t all that keen on being locked up in a pen, even though he lived in the Santa Cruz Mountains, which is basically like the best place you can live if you’re a horse. I mean, it’s really a stable environment. Anyway, he knew a guy, who knew a guy, who knew a dwarf billy goat. And this billy goat was, like, super gruff. So one day the billy goat just butts the living hell out of the stable gate, and bam! They’re both out, right? Freedom. But then the billy goat’s like, “I can’t live on the outside, man! I’m freakin’ out!” The farmers or whatever show up, and the billy goat creates a diversion and he’s like “Run, buddy! Run for your life!” And the weird thing is, the horse’s name actually was Buddy. Anyway, they find this Clydesdale a few days later, one mile away, hiding in some shrubbery. And they bring him back in, and ever since then, he just walks around with this long face.

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

The 142-acre expanse north of the Summit known as “Holy City” has an absolutely ghastly history: it was founded in 1918 by William E. Riker as a crack-a-lackin compound for extreme racism, peppered with signs that said things like “Asians and Negroes keep out of Holy City until you’ve learned your place.” Riker’s “Perfect Christian Divine Way” required communal living and total abstinence for the 300 followers living there, and he ruled it until he was charged with sedition in 1942 for writing Hitler love letters. But the parcel was sold for $6 million this summer, and finally the surrounding neighbors can relax, knowing there won’t be anything crazy going on under the new owners: two Silicon Valley billionaires who are Scientology’s biggest donors.

September

IT TURNS OUT GOD EXISTS, AND SHE REALLY CAN’T STAND LOMA PRIETA

As if having your name forever attached to the phrase “earthquake” wasn’t enough, Loma Prieta in the Santa Cruz Mountains was home to another disaster this year. The Loma Fire started on Sept. 26, bringing a terrifying new meaning to the phrase “well, that escalated quickly” as it burned 4,500 acres and 12 homes.

SIXTH-GRADER EXCITED TO VOTE; THOSE WHO ACTUALLY CAN, NOT SO MUCH

Like any young American, Sara Bowin was fully prepared to do her civic duty when she received a letter from the Voter Participation Center with instructions on how to register to vote in her first election. Just one little problem: Bowin is 12. However, the future Katniss Everdeen of the Trump Republic wrote a response which caught the eye of Santa Cruz County Clerk Gail Pellerin: “As much as I would love to voice my opinion and make sure our country is under the right leader, I am only 12 years old.” #Futuredaughtergoals

October

C’MON, YOU KNOW SHE WAS JUICING

UCSC researchers say an elephant seal named Phyllis set an elephant seal record by swimming 3,700 miles west from the Northern California coast before turning around, for a trip that will total 7,400 miles by the time she arrives home in January. Other elephant seals at the Marine Mammal Center in Pescadero where Phyllis lives expressed surprise at the news, saying Phyllis was generally known to be “super lazy, even for an elephant seal” and that she usually prefers “Netflix and chill” to swimming. Researchers would neither confirm nor deny that Phyllis’ record swim was part of a desperate search for a new name.

INCREDIBLE STEP TOWARD GENDER EQUALITY IN SURFING DEFINITELY NOT MOTIVATED BY THREAT OF NO SURFING

“It’s quite simply the right time,” Brian Waters, COO of Cartel Management, told the Sentinel when asked about his company’s sudden move to add a women’s heat to the annual Titans of Mavericks surfing contest this year. “There was no compelling driver other than it was the time to do it.” In an unrelated story, the California Coastal Commission announced two days later that if organizers had not added the women’s contest, it had planned to deny Cartel a permit for the annual big-wave event. The CCC had ordered Cartel to add a women’s heat in 2015 as a condition of future permits, but the original permit request for this year’s event did not include one. It all goes to prove the old saying, “There are definitely coincidences.”

November

THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ELECTION COVERAGE IS POST-ELECTION COVERAGE

The painful news that the United States had elected a stale hot Cheeto for president was dulled slightly—at least for some transportation enthusiasts—by the announcement that Measure D had passed in Santa Cruz County with 67.8 percent of the vote. As a matter of fact, every local measure in the county, ranging from pot regulations to fire and school bonds, earned voter approval. Santa Cruz voters elected three women, which will bring the number of women on its City Council to five out of seven seats. But the days after the election were also marked by protests locally, as hundreds of activists clogged the streets, decrying President-elect Donald Trump and trying to work through the five stages of grief.

STILL STANDING IN STANDING ROCK—BUT SERIOUSLY, OW, THAT IS TERRIBLE

Noah-Michael Treanor, a Pajaro Valley High School grad, took a rubber bullet to the head in Standing Rock, North Dakota, while peacefully protesting the proposed Dakota Access Pipeline there, and required medical attention as blood ran down his face. Footage of the incident was seen by more than 100,000 people, as filmed by online media group the Young Turks. Treanor recovered and went back to the front lines the next day.

December

HEAVEN IS SALINAS

Larry Hosford, one of the last survivors of a rock ’n’ roll tradition of musicians who became stars within a regional circuit without finding more than cult fame nationally, died Nov. 26 at the age of 73. In the ’60s, Hosford’s garage band the E-Types was to the Monterey Bay what the Sonics were to the Northwest scene and the 13th Floor Elevators were to Texas rock. In 1971, he joined Snail, Santa Cruz’s most almost-famous band, and then in 1974, Hosford landed a solo record deal that led to an album produced by George Harrison. To most local fans, he will be best-remembered for his KPIG-rotated Americana songs, especially “Salinas,” his tribute to his hometown: “Most of the Okies I know/They went to Salinas/That’s where I’m from/I guess I’m an Okie/I was raised among ’em.”

NOT EVEN TIMOTHY LEARY WOULD BE COOL WITH THIS, AND HE KINDA LET A LOT OF STUFF SLIDE

While LSD was once known in Santa Cruz for expanding consciousness, promising to unlock transcendent states of reality and giving grown men an excuse to drink deliciously refreshing Kool-Aid, this year it’s more likely to be remembered for making jackasses crash their cars and then try to kick their way out of the situation. That’s what the California Highway Patrol says 29-year-old Marki Manojlovic did early on the morning of Dec. 12, driving into 40 (!!!) traffic cones on Highway 17, and then a sign, and then eventually a metal fence. Responding officers said Manojlovic got pretty kicky as they tried to arrest him, and the CHP said Manojlovic was found to be high on LSD after being transported to Dominican Hospital. Somewhere, LSD inventor Albert Hoffman is turning over in his grave, while he continues to ponder how they can be called fingers if they don’t fing.

Doubling Down on Climate Change

Local News

Jennifer Wadsworth

-

December 21, 2016

0

During high tides in Santa Cruz, the San Lorenzo River rises dangerously high. Water seeps through the gravel-y underground sediment around the river levees by the clock tower, possibly even flooding downtown. The Santa Cruz Harbor and the Beach Boardwalk are in peril whenever a big winter storm rolls in.

This could be Santa Cruz’s future in the decades to come, according to a 2011 climate change analysis from UCSC professor Gary Griggs.

It’s a possibility that, with sea levels rising, feels more real than ever. But experts raising the alarm about the slow-motion cataclysm have only recently begun to make headway against systemic complacency. Now they fear that a Donald Trump presidency and Republican-controlled Congress could undermine what marginal progress has been made to adapt to—let alone prevent—climate change.

“Trump’s election could not have come at a worse time, and it will doubtless add inches, if not feet, to the eventual height of the planet’s oceans,” renowned environmentalist and author Bill McKibben says. “That’s how close to the edge we are.”

Unchecked emissions of heat-trapping gases over the past century have profoundly altered the Earth’s climate, elevating sea levels and blighting ecosystems, such as coral reefs. The world’s average temperature has risen by more than 1 degree Fahrenheit since 1900. This year will go down as the hottest on record. Sea levels along the California coast have risen more than 8 inches in the past century. And yet, the president-elect has vowed to overhaul the nation’s direction on climate and energy by withdrawing from the landmark Paris Agreement, which seeks to limit the effects of global warming through drastic emissions cuts and socio-structural adaptations. The accord, ratified by the majority of the 197 signatory countries, marks the first time the U.S. has agreed to collaborate with the rest of the world on climate change.

Trump has also suggested dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The New York City real estate mogul famously tweeted about global warming being a Chinese “hoax” designed to make U.S. manufacturing less competitive. He nominated Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a climate change denier himself, as head of the EPA.

Trump’s critics worry that his election may spell the end for President Barack Obama’s Clean Power Act, which allocates $2 billion in grants to promote investments in clean energy and requires coal mines to clean up or close up shop. Or that he may open up public lands to fracking, ignite a resurgence of science denial, and squelch the political will to fund anything remotely linked to environmentalism. Once in office, Trump could make many of these changes unilaterally. His appointees could approve pipelines and issue drilling permits. They could scuttle regulations for smog and coal ash.

The impending ideological shift in the White House may require California and local governments to double down on fighting the causes and effects of climate change, says Mark Jacobson, a professor of environmental engineering at Stanford University.

“I think the Trump administration will try to cut all climate change research, including for adaptation, in the U.S.,” he says. “This could affect the work of federal employees and many of those dependent on federal grants for research.”

Thankfully, Jacobson says, his own work on developing renewable energy solutions requires no federal funding. If anything, he plans to redouble his efforts. But slashing funds for climate change will hurt graduate students, who rely on federal grants.

“California, nonprofits and individuals will hopefully take up the slack,” he says.

South Carolina Republican Bob Inglis, a former congressman from the reddest district in the reddest state, says there’s a chance Trump could boost the clean energy market.

“I think it’s totally unpredictable,” says Inglis, head of conservative climate action nonprofit RepublicEn. “Al Gore was meeting with Ivanka Trump, and her dad joined the meeting. What that means for climate change—who knows?”

After all, Inglis points out, it was Republican President Richard Nixon who mended relations with socialist China. It was Democratic President Bill Clinton who scuttled welfare protections for the poor. It was purportedly progressive President Barack Obama who ramped up deportations to record-breaking numbers. Could President-elect Donald Trump, an ideologically inconsistent Republican, promote sustainability as a path to energy independence?

“He may surprise us,” Inglis says, adding that he’s holding out hope. “Maybe Trump will be the one who takes on climate change.”

Inglis is part of a growing coalition of conservative climate champions who are trying to rally Republicans behind renewable energy as free-market solutions to a warming planet. The former lawmaker flatly denied climate change until his children persuaded him to take a closer look at the science. That change of heart exacted a political price, costing a re-election in 2010 after 12 years in Congress. The next generation of Republicans, however, seems more receptive.

“Young conservatives are our best audience,” Inglis says. “They plan on living a while.”

World Piece

Newly elected City Councilmember Chris Krohn says there’s a lot Santa Cruz leaders can do on the climate change front—both cutting emissions and reducing the threatening impacts that climate change poses to the community. Krohn would like to see Santa Cruz plant more trees, protect its marshes, require solar panels on new buildings, make water restrictions last year-round, and encourage people to turn off their sprinkler systems, like he did.

“My lawn went from brown to green, almost like leaves falling off a tree, as soon as it became October,” says Krohn, who also served on the council 15 years ago and works for UCSC’s sustainability program.

The City of Santa Cruz adopted a Climate Action Plan in 2012 to cut emissions 30 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 and 80 percent by 2050—going above and beyond regulations signed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in 2006. Some critics at the time derided the city’s plan for not being ambitious enough, but the city is spending $18 million, according to its budget, on environmental projects ranging from water sustainability to transportation, and the city looks poised to meet its target.

California has long stood out as a national leader in cutting carbon pollution. Its auto emissions standards are among the more rigorous in the nation. While the state passed its 2006 law, Congress has failed to pass a single bill in the past decade that tackles climate change.

Even with a Democrat in the White House, only modest progress has been made. Secretary of State John Kerry boasted last month that wind and solar power have grown 30-fold under Obama’s tenure, but they still generate little more than 5 percent of the nation’s energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Chances of renewables beefing up their share of the national energy market look dismal under the incoming administration, which has cozied up to the coal and gas industries. Trump’s incoming chief of staff, Reince Priebus, clarified that Trump’s “default position” on climate change is that “most of it is a bunch of bunk.”

The Golden State has one of the most comprehensive energy efficiency rules on a vast range of applications, including new construction and kitchen appliances. California rolled out one of its own cap-and-trade programs that forces power plants, factories and refineries to pay to pollute.

More local efforts may have their limits. Here in Santa Cruz, as the city prepared to approve its Climate Action Plan four years ago, climate activist Michael Levy helped organize an underwater tour of downtown, complete with sea anemone costumes, people in wetsuits, a big bicycle-pulled boat, and song re-writes, like “Sitting on the Dock of the Highway.”

In the years since, Levy, a private music teacher who’s recording an album about climate change, has found that in order to have a big impact, you sometimes have to work on the national level. He has gotten involved with nationwide movements, even marching in Washington D.C. to protest the Keystone XL oil pipeline that Obama eventually halted.

“The United States could risk becoming a rogue nation where the rest of the world works on climate change, and we ignore it,” Levy says. “Who knows what Trump really thinks, but a lot of his cabinet picks are very, very pro-business. There’s such a strange level of denial from these guys. Eventually, it will all come crashing down.”

Additional reporting contributed by Jacob Pierce.

Technology at the Table

Andrew Steingrube

-

December 21, 2016

0

The holidays are here. It’s time to disconnect from our devices and spend quality time with family and friends, right? In a society where technology seems to bleed into all moments and social situations, one of the most inspiring things I’ve seen at the restaurant where I work was a group of eight people who sat down, immediately turned off their phones, and placed them in the center of the table. It was a simple act that showed a commitment and respect for real connection that left me so impressed I was rendered momentarily speechless.

It seems like a healthy behavior that could—and probably should—catch on. In a world where many of us feel more naked without our phones than we do without our pants, disconnecting from the virtual world in order to connect face to face is becoming increasingly important to our health as a society.

It’s tempting to think of technology at the table as more of a young-person problem, and a 2015 nationally representative survey conducted by the nonprofit group Common Sense Media did find that tweens (ages 8-12) spent about six hours per day using digital entertainment media, and teens (ages 13-18) spent about nine hours per day plugged in. Those hours were in addition to time spent on the same devices while in school or doing homework. The survey’s authors called these findings “astounding” and “absolutely mind-boggling.”

But in 2016, the same group surveyed parents about their use of media and technology. It turns out that the parents of the same age group (8-18 years of age) spent more than nine hours per day on average looking at the screens of their smartphones, tablets, or TVs (also in addition to time spent on these devices while at work). Although it might seem plainly intuitive that behavioral modeling is a more effective way to teach children than a “Do as I say, not as I do” approach, 78 percent of those same parents reported feeling that they were actually being good role models for their children in regard to technology use. Factoring out the hours spent asleep, at work or at school, the data from these surveys suggests that kids and parents alike are spending the vast majority of their remaining available time plugged into devices.

Sure, a certain amount of technology use is inevitable—part of the wave of modern momentum. But face-to-face communication, especially among families, has been shown to be beneficial to physical and psychological well-being. And a decline in such connection may have dire consequences on society’s youth.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that more than 50,000 Americans died from drug overdoses in 2015, which was not only the highest number in history, but also surpassed fatalities from car crashes and gun violence (including homicide and suicide) by far. Family mealtimes may be one way to combat this problem in young people, as a 2012 report published by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse identified a strong link between frequent family meals (five to seven per week) and a lowered incidence of drug use in teens.

That is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the benefits of shared family meals, though. In 2014 the American College of Pediatricians published an article titled “The Benefits of the Family Table” which cited a multitude of research studies linking shared family meals to a wide variety of positive outcomes. Children and teens who shared frequent family meals were not only less likely to engage in disordered eating or be overweight, they were also more likely to eat a healthy diet rich in fruits and vegetables and low in unhealthy fats, fried food and soda. The article also highlighted research showing that teens who shared frequent family meals were more likely to get better grades, less likely to engage in sexual activity, less likely to experience depression, display fewer emotional and behavioral problems, and were more likely to report having excellent relationships with their mother, father and siblings. The authors concluded by saying, “When families regularly share meals together, everyone benefits—the children, parents, and even the community. Making the ‘Family Table’ a priority from an early age can serve as a ‘vaccine’ against many of the harms that come to children from a hurried lifestyle.

Q&A: Photographer Legend Paul Schraub

A&E
Art

Christina Waters

-

December 21, 2016

0

Cool as a martini. He was the guy you wished had taken you to the prom. With one or two words he could encourage any group of clients to release all inhibitions while he and his camera waited, poised for the money shot. Though professional to the core, he showed up at his own Halloween costume party dressed as a well-known religious icon in loincloth and crown of thorns. That was in the ’80s, and movie-star-handsome Paul Schraub could get away with anything, though he rarely chose to do so. Instead, he took pictures that heightened the allure of his subjects. Using lighting, music and charm he tweaked his studio’s ambience until just the right amount of energy seemed to fill the room, and when composition magically gelled he released the strobe and tripped the shutter.

“In college I wanted to do art photography,” Schraub admits, with a slow, impish grin. “I wanted to be Richard Avedon.”

A Palo Alto native, he grew up in Southern California and came to UCSC in 1970. Why? “It was an alternative school, I wanted to be in the redwoods, and have long hair,” he says. “I shot rock bands at Winterland for fun while I was a student and had access to a decent darkroom.”

Notoriously shy, Schraub admits that photography helped him get over some of that. “I had contemplated being a bicycle mechanic until Franklin Avery hired me to be a processor and printer for his photography business,” Schraub says. “He was very encouraging.”

Then what happened?

PAUL SCHRAUB: I found the idea of photographing people terrifying. Slowly I acquired a style—a knock-off of Avedon. All I wanted to do was black and white. Then in 1982 Franklin moved to San Francisco and essentially handed me his business. I moved to the Michael Leeds building on what is now Squid Row. It was really funky, but it was a lively environment. I had access to his workshop and I lived upstairs for eight years.

Those fabled group shots of the fringe artists you were famous for, how did they happen?

There is that ‘put it together and shout some directions’ approach that does seem to work with people shots whether you really have a plan or not. You do run the risk of looking foolish, and it is a challenge to risk that. But I suppose that is faith.

Your current bread and butter ?

I don’t shoot fashion, but what I do is a mixed bag of food, architecture and business portraits. I’ve done hotels in Carmel and Monterey, and architectural shots, most of my business is in the Santa Cruz area.

What’s the most tedious?

Some product photography. One client wanted clear, clean shots of every single bottle in his product line. Architecture is engaging. Lighting it, problem solving, The work comes in waves, summers tend to be a little quiet, which is nice because I can get outside more. Every Sunday is a bike ride, usually 50 miles with four to nine others, followed by beer and a burger somewhere.

How has the advent of digital affected your work?

At least half of my work time is on the computer. It can be very satisfying and fun, it can also be time-consuming. Photoshop can really do things we couldn’t do in the past. In the digital era I don’t have to carry around as much equipment, and I just need five lenses instead of 20. It’s cheaper to do my work today, but it’s harder to price it, to gauge what to charge.

Has the iPhone affected your business?

Well, it’s true that some of the lower market assignments may have gone away. But things that look astonishing on your phone might not when blown up to billboard size. The technology of the cellphone camera is easier than doing the work of lighting, composing, arranging. So you can shoot a good image, but you can’t necessarily construct one.

Do you make your living with photography?

Yes, but I have to work all the time. It can be feast or famine. I keep doing photography because I still like it. Sometimes I love it. But I never hate it. 2008 was horrible. I almost lost my studio.

What creates the most difficulty?

Communication problems can occur when people have high expectations but little time or money. They think it can all be done by magic.

Did you always want to be a photographer?

I was originally going to study botany at UCSC, but I couldn’t get any of the classes I wanted. I wasn’t interested in professional photography at the time. I got a degree in political philosophy. My classmates tended to go to law school, but I wasn’t interested in that. I did some travelling, went to Bali four times working on a book, Masks of Bali, with Judy Slattum. Then that whole art community in town—it was fun being tied into that. There was a Dadaist aura about many of those people, the Brezsnys, B. Modern.

Your current studio situation?

R.r Jones was my assistant back in the days of film photography. We share the studio space, but he dominates the music selection. I like the Stones, Dylan, Donovan. Donovan was a Paul Simon of his time, and besides, Jimmy Page played backup on his albums. No one knows that.

Your favorite music?

I like the ’80s new wave stuff, and I like ’60s stuff, old English blues bands, Rolling Stones. It has been played to death but “Gimme Shelter” is number one. Close on its heels are “The Supernatural”… Peter Green with John Mayall’s Blues Breakers and “1983” by Hendrix. Don’t get me started. Happy to admit that I live in a musical past.

What are you good at?

Problem solving. I have an understanding of images, of previous masters, and I can bring some ideas to each shoot. I no longer have the patience to do certain kinds of work like freezing my ass off waiting for a sunrise shot. I can muster the patience but I don’t really enjoy waiting for good light. Maybe that is why I light things. I do like working with natural light (when I don’t have to wait) but most of my work has involved lighting. The challenge is often how to create natural looking light that shows the subject well and isn’t a distraction.

Do you still enjoy it?

I never don’t want to go to work. I like being responsible for the jobs, and I can’t imagine not being busy. There’s some repetition of course, and there’s some experimentation—although that can take up time and if it doesn’t work then you have to make some quick solutions. (He rolls his eyes and grins.)

For more info and to see his work, visit paulschraubphoto.com.

2016: The Year in Music

A&E
Music

Aaron Carnes

-

December 21, 2016

0

As 2016 winds down, it might be tempting to think of this year as “that year everyone died.” We did lose some legends. But let’s not forget that it’s also been an incredible year for new music.

It’s true that three of this year’s best albums were inspired by death. David Bowie released his meditation on mortality, Blackstar, two days before passing away. If you’re a fan, try to get through “I Can’t Give Everything Away” without crying. The great Leonard Cohen released You Want It Darker shortly before passing away, as well. It’s a bleak masterpiece. Perhaps most heartbreaking is Nick Cave and the Bad Seed’s Skeleton Tree, which was inspired by the death of his son.

But when people look back at the music of 2016 years from now, they will remember it for more than just the artists we lost. There have been mind-blowing rap and soul albums from every subgenre—new records by A Tribe Called Quest, Beyonce, D.R.A.M., Blood Orange, Noname, Frank Ocean, Kanye West, and Anderson Paak have all been excellent.

Less obviously, 2016 has also been an amazing year for left-of-center punk rock. Pup, and Parquet Courts both released brilliant new albums that deserve some recognition. Other genres had great albums, too—Sturgill Simpson, anyone?—but 2016 is going to be remembered as a new beginning for rap and punk.

The three best rap albums of 2016 are all completely different, and illustrate the diversity and ingenuity in hip-hop right now:

Chance the Rapper, ‘Colouring Book’: If you haven’t already watched the footage of Chance performing on Jimmy Fallon, do so. It illustrates exactly why he’s a genius. Accompanied by a gospel choir, a trumpet player and live instruments, he gets choked up as he spits verses. It’s the most gospel hip-hop has gotten, with lyrics that are uplifting, emotional and uncompromisingly artistic. (“Jesus’ black life ain’t matter/I know I talked to his daddy/Said ‘you the man of the house now/Look out for your family’”)

Danny Brown, ‘Atrocity Exhibition’: On the other end of the spectrum is Danny Brown and his dark rabbit hole of an album, Atrocity Exhibition. Rap music has created more space for artists to get personal, and analyze their internal framework. Brown jumped in with both feet, and left no uncomfortable stone unturned lyrically—everything that used to be fun is destroying his life. Musically, it’s on par with innovative free jazz albums. The beats are strange, but allow the words to flourish.

Swet Shop Boys, ‘Cashmere’: In 2010, wisecracking stream-of-conscious rappers Das Racist released two brilliant mixtapes: Shut Up, Dude and Sit Down, Man. Some of it was hilarious, but the word play and social commentary was undeniable. Kool A.D. went on to have a prolific and impressive career. Heems, on the other hand, had been flailing, that is until he teamed up with MC Riz (Rizwan Ahmed from HBO’s The Night Of). This may be the timeliest, most politically poignant album of the year, as the rappers unleash about their experiences as Muslims in the U.S. and U.K. in today’s environment of global paranoia.

The three best punk albums of 2016 are all from artists you wouldn’t expect:

AJJ, ‘The Bible 2’: This is a tight, dark record that jumps past the band’s folk-punk roots (when they were known as Andrew Jackson Jihad), and beyond sounding like a full band doing renditions of folk-punk songs, like some of the group’s later work. A highlight is “Small Red Boy,” which tells the story of a little devil growing out of the narrator’s stomach.

Jeff Rosenstock, ‘Worry’: The former head honcho of Bomb the Music Industry, Rosenstock has released his best album to date. It’s a tense, emotional and sometimes political record. The album is punk in the loosest sense, which is precisely why I’ve always loved Rosenstock and BtMI. Worry is a masterpiece in the BtMI-style, a scatterbrained, heart-on-the-sleeve, weirdo rock ’n’ roll explosion. The second half off the record is a series of short, but linked songs, like a punk rock Abbey Road.

Diners, ‘three’: The lesser-known, but no-less interesting Diners released an amazing album to virtually no fanfare. The group plays lounge-y, AM-radio-inspired pop songs, but with a true punk rock spirit. I expect more from this band in the future.

Holiday Cookie Roundup, Plus a Wine and Dessert of the Week

Christina Waters

-

December 21, 2016

0

Holiday Cookie Roundup, Plus a Wine and Dessert of the Week

Christmas seems eternally perfumed with the aroma of fresh-baked cookies. Cinnamon, nutmeg, chocolate, roasted nuts, brown sugar, ginger. At least they were always this way at my mom’s house on those delicious Christmases past.

Using treasured recipes she’d acquired when we lived in Germany, as well as some gems from Sunset magazine, she’d start baking no later than the first of December: Brown sugar brownies, oatmeal bars, little pfeffernusse cookies stamped with tiny Scandinavian girls, boys, and Santas, and chocolate rum balls that were flat-out addictive. Each batch would be cooled, packed into shoe boxes, labeled, and then frozen until the week before Christmas. Then, a half dozen or so of each kind of cookie would be assembled into gift boxes we’d deliver to friends and neighbors on Christmas Eve. I still bake cookies this time of year, although my specialties are different from those of my childhood. I always bake a double chocolate variety, my own variation on the pfeffernusse filled with pecans, candied citron and white pepper, and an irresistible orange cranberry and almond cookie, loaded with butter and calories—the stuff of holiday memories. My buddy Lisa also has her own secret holiday recipes, and after she’s baked up a storm, we exchange our cookie assortments, each to each, and then enjoy tasting the handiwork of another baker.

If, for whatever reason, you don’t bake cookies this time of year—and yet you yearn for those old-fashioned holiday flavors—you’re in luck. We live in a veritable Santa’s workshop of bakeries, each seasonally stocked with glittering cookies of all kinds, from traditional to playful. At Gayle’s you can go nuts over the prettily decorated holiday cookies, as well as the classic Florentine whose chocolate and nuts make it suitable for gift-giving all year long. I am wild about Gayle’s cantuccini, a gossamer version of the Bolognese miniature biscotti, “little songs.”

At Kelly’s, it’s very hard to bypass arguably the finest pumpkin pie in town, even if it isn’t a cookie. But there are plenty of beautifully decorated cookies here too, each with colorful icings and sprinkles that make them favorites with young ones.

At the Buttery, tiny sugar cookie Christmas trees, stockings, stars and candy canes are brightly frosted and crying out to be consumed on Christmas Eve with coffee or eggnog. Without these lovely seasonal pastries, Christmas wouldn’t really be, well, Christmas.

Dessert of the Week

After a salon last week at Gabriella Cafe for a reading of my new book Inside the Flame, I shared a dessert so magically delicious that I still cannot believe it existed. Pumpkin semifreddo. Imagine softly frozen cream laced with the ripe, rich flavor of the season’s favorite squash. On top was strewn a spicy dusting of ginger snaps, and atop that was a generous mound of unsweetened whipped cream. To. Die. For. If it’s still on the menu as you read this, drop everything and head on over to Gabriella. You’ll thank me for this.

Wine of the Week

Bargetto’s 2015 Chardonnay, made from Monterey County grapes, and aromatic with citrus, a sprightly center, and the slightest green olive essence of oak. At 13.8 alcohol and a modest $14, this is a worthy and refreshing accompaniment for Dungeness crab, ham, tamales, and/or roast turkey. It also likes Brie. I found this at Shopper’s Corner as well as New Leaf Market on the Westside. Affordable pleasure and great with food.

Dot, Dot, Dot

Am I hearing this right? After so long Michael Clark is about to exit Michael’s on Main. But another Michael—Harrison—is poised to take over. Let me double check this historic rumor. Stay tuned.

Christina Waters is the author of ‘Inside the Flame,’ available locally at Bookshop Santa Cruz, Logos, and on Amazon.

The Santa Cruz Cider Circuit

Food & Drink

Lily Stoicheff

-

December 20, 2016

0

Few things feel as festive as popping a bottle of bubbly. So why stop at champagne? Santa Cruz is brimming with complex, artisanal hard ciders that are about as far a cry from Martinelli’s as you can get (no offense). Not only is the dry, farmhouse-style craftsmanship reminiscent of sparkling wine, but these effervescent brews also pair beautifully with nearly everything on the holiday table. Look for them at local bottle shops, the Food Lounge and specialty markets:

There’s almost no residual sugar in the very dry, very crisp Zozo Dry Farmhouse Cider by Tanuki Cider (8.5 percent alcohol, 22-ounce bottle). Pale yellow and a bit cloudy, this unfiltered cider has a tart, snappy finish. The limited-release Hurricane Dry Imperial Cider is clear and light on the palate.
The Wooden Tooth Special from Santa Cruz Cider Company is medium-bodied and bone dry with a clean, fruity finish. Unlike some of the other ciders, this cider has a pronounced apple aroma and flavor without tasting sweet, and nicely balanced acidity. The Ottsonville Special is made entirely from apples from a pre-prohibition orchard outside of Corralitos and has a bit more structure than the Wooden Tooth.
The Santa Cruz Scrumpy from Surf City Cider comes in a variety of fruit-infused variations, including black cherry “chider” and pomegranate, but I prefer the classic hard apple. Lower carbonation gives the Scrumpy a fuller texture and allows a clean, apple-y sweetness to hit your palate, carrying through the soft finish.
The organic apples in Soquel Cider are grown, pressed and fermented at Everett Family Farm in Soquel. Laura Everett favors heirloom varieties for her cider, resulting in a clean, delicate creation with complex acidity.
The Psyko Psyder from Krazy Farm Cider is the newest hard cider to hit the local market. Fresh-pressed juice is blended with cardamom, ginger and honey, resulting in a powerfully heady tea-like aroma, spicy body and long, dry finish.

LATEST ARTICLES

LATEST ARTICLES

LATEST ARTICLES

LATEST ARTICLES

NOT ON MY WATCH

DEFENDING VIERRA

BAD ADVICE

January

GODZILLA INVADES SANTA CRUZ, THOUSANDS FLEE IN MILD ANNOYANCE TO CHANGE OUT OF WET SOCKS

SECURITY GUARD FAILS TO ACHIEVE STATE OF ACTUAL COPNESS

February

WEIRD WESTSIDE HOME SOLD TO ALARMINGLY NORMAL COUPLE

BUT IT HAD WALLS AND A ROOF, RIGHT? IS IT STILL AVAILABLE?

March

GIVE US ALL YOUR CASH MONEYS AND ALSO THE LUNCH SPECIAL

AIN’T NO PARTY LIKE A BANANA SLUG PARTY

April

THE BURRITO-SIZED HOLE IN OUR HEARTS

‘I THOUGHT I DREAMT THAT’ EXCUSE PROBABLY SEEMED LIKE IT MIGHT WORK

May

EVERY PUN WE COULD MAKE ABOUT HOW GROSS COWELL BEACH IS

BECAUSE, LIKE THE PRESIDENT-ELECT SAID, ‘70 PERCENT OF REGULATIONS CAN GO’

June

POSSIBLY THE NEXT CLOVERFIELD SEQUEL

PAST ITS PRIME

July

YOU CAN FIND ME IN DA CLUB, BOTTLE FULL OF PERMIT VIOLATIONS

BOAT MADE MY LUNCH

August

WHEN UNLIKELY ANIMAL FRIENDS ATTACK

THERE GOES THE NEIGHBORHOOD

September

IT TURNS OUT GOD EXISTS, AND SHE REALLY CAN’T STAND LOMA PRIETA

SIXTH-GRADER EXCITED TO VOTE; THOSE WHO ACTUALLY CAN, NOT SO MUCH

October

C’MON, YOU KNOW SHE WAS JUICING

INCREDIBLE STEP TOWARD GENDER EQUALITY IN SURFING DEFINITELY NOT MOTIVATED BY THREAT OF NO SURFING

November

THE ONLY THING WORSE THAN ELECTION COVERAGE IS POST-ELECTION COVERAGE

STILL STANDING IN STANDING ROCK—BUT SERIOUSLY, OW, THAT IS TERRIBLE

December

HEAVEN IS SALINAS

NOT EVEN TIMOTHY LEARY WOULD BE COOL WITH THIS, AND HE KINDA LET A LOT OF STUFF SLIDE

World Piece

Dessert of the Week

Wine of the Week

Dot, Dot, Dot